Suchformular

Business

In our previous post in this Building a Superior Customer Experience series, we discussed the logistical complexities retail businesses today need to tackle in order to simplify the complicated customer journey. Let’s take a look at the process... Mehr

Before coming to Acquia, I worked as a web content management architect and consultant for numerous public sector enterprises, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). At DHS, my main project was the strategy, design, and implementation of a Web Content Management as a Service (WCMaaS) offering from the Office of the Chief Information Officer (and all DHS component organizations such as FEMA, USCIS, etc.). Two objectives of this effort were the consolidation of multiple CMS technologies onto an open standard, and the migration of public facing sites out of in house data centers... Mehr

In this 3-part series, we’ll look at how retailers can tackle the logistical hurdles standing in the way of developing and delivering a superior customer experience.
With the adoption and proliferation of cross-channel purchasing paths, the customer journey has changed tremendously. A single-touch purchase is rather uncommon in today’s market, meaning a customer doesn’t regularly browse, research, and buy all at the same time, or through the same channel. Often a purchase is made only after a customer has interacted with the brand multiple times, in multiple places. It’s commonplace to see a... Mehr

What is Digital Experience Government?
What does it mean to become “more digital”? Hasn’t government been “going digital” since the move to the web in the early ’90s? Yes, but to be a digital organization today means providing citizens, public servants, active duty military, and veterans an exceptionally easy and accessible front door to government services. With today’s confluence of new channels, new technologies, citizen hack-tivists like Code for America, innovative public sector leadership and digitally demanding users, government organizations have an opportunity to set the example for... Mehr

It is no surprise that open source technologies find widespread favor in governments. This is true for both server-side and client-side operations. In fact, many widely used web technologies were created and fine-tuned in government organizations.
Governments have unique requirements from their software solutions. Unlike private enterprises, there is no short-term liquidity event on the horizon for government agencies. Governments have to make judicious, long-term tech choices, which is why open source curries such favor in the public sector.
As this... Mehr

In late 2014, the Australian government embarked on an ambitious plan to create a “platform for the country.” This platform was a long-term project aimed at creating a highly scalable platform the government could use to serve its constituents, both now and in the future.
To create this platform, the Australian government turned to open source technology due to its robustness, scalability, and adaptability. The end result was the “govCMS” platform built on open source content management system (CMS) Drupal.
The primary... Mehr

Acquia has long been on the forefront of cloud security as it supports some of the world’s most important organizations on the Acquia Platform -- the largest provider of Drupal infrastructure in the world.
This week marked the announcement that Acquia is now ready to support customers with Drupal 8 -- from its Platform for building, delivering, and optimizing websites and digital experience -- to its customer success teams. We bring an enhanced level of D8 security to the Drupal 8 platform, but also have the talent, expertise, and processes in place to provide every confidence that our... Mehr

Business leaders today face a big challenge when it comes to planning for their organization’s digital success. Business and IT execs I speak with around the world regarding CMS and the challenges of digital experience delivery consistently hit on themes that probably sound familiar to you. To name a few:
You need to build sites and experiences quickly, on a modern CMS platform that evolves as your requirements expand.
You need to reduce costs to build, deploy, manage and optimize those sites and move key capabilities to the cloud as you rethink your tech strategy.
You need to deliver tools... Mehr

“Change.” That’s the word that best describes today’s digital world. Since 1991, internet users have grown from a handful of researchers to nearly 3 billion globally. Along the way, how we access and use digital information has changed as well. Government organizations, like the rest of society, are under increasing pressure to adapt to this rapid pace of change.
Today’s sophisticated consumers demand dynamic, interactive experiences that help them work with–and participate in–government. To craft the digital experiences their constituents demand, governments have to adopt newer technologies... Mehr

It’s 2pm on a Friday and I am fried. I’m dying for the workweek to be over. This time last week I was rock climbing in the Austrian Alps with my fiancé trying my best not to scratch up my week-old engagement ring. We flew back to Boston the next day and were both at work on Monday, dying for a vacation from our vacation.
Now that I’m just about finished digging out from under a pile of email and to-dos, I’m in desperate need of more traditional relaxation. One project we’ve been working on is telling our newest success story – Blissworld.... Mehr

I discovered the OluKai brand a couple of years ago when my brother bought a pair of OluKai sandals, and lived in them for an entire summer. Nearly daily proclamations of enthusiasm and excitement over that single pair of sandals soon had me looking at the brand website and buying a pair for myself. Much like my Brother, I immediately fell in love, and have been a strong brand advocate ever since. But it’s not just the sandals I fell in love with, it’s the lifestyle that OluKai embodies. It made me want to emulate that in my own life.... Mehr

Successful brands not only requires an elegant and intuitive shopping experience, but one that is contextualized for the customer’s specific goals and preferences. Delivering an experience that is capable of understanding whether a person is doing product research, shopping for themselves, or buying a gift for someone else is complex, but achievable with the proper plan and technologies in place.
Businesses are scrambling to figure out how to achieve personalization success. To do it right, there are a lot of moving parts. Identifying and addressing each of those can be a challenge. Here, we’... Mehr

At Acquia, as we begin to build our university relations program, we are excited about bringing in the next generation of talent to help move our company forward. In 2015 alone, we nearly doubled our internship program and entry level hiring.
We are committed to providing an awesome experience for our interns, and we have a whole host of summer events planned to make their experiences as rich as possible. From lunch and learns with our executives and departments to a formal... Mehr

One of the most important elements of developing a great personalization strategy is determining what you know, pinpointing what you don’t, and figuring out what you want to learn. From there you’ll get to know your audience much better, and can easily refine and optimize campaigns to add more relevance and more value to your customers.
At the onset of any personalization initiative, you’ll want to create a Learning and Testing Agenda to stay focused on working through these questions.
1) Research and Learning Vision. First, at a fairly high level, document what drives your organization.... Mehr

Since joining Acquia, I’ve been taking a close look at opportunities where we're competing against proprietary content management systems, often Adobe Enterprise Manager (aka CQ 5) and sometimes Sitecore.
While Acquia competes with Adobe and Sitecore across a variety of companies - from the largest in the world to smaller higher education institutions and non-profits - I’m most surprised when I see so-called “mid-market” prospects looking at Adobe CQ. Defining mid-market is a bit tricky, but I’ll default to Wikipedia, which... Mehr

Like many consumers, I shop different brands to satisfy different needs: clothing, gifts, groceries, personal goods, accessories, etc. Sometimes I shop independent small businesses, and other times I shop larger retailers with a network of related brands. But no matter who owns the shopping experience, I expect the experience to be tailored to me. If I don’t see content and product recommendations that are of interest to me, chances are I won’t stick around long, and... Mehr

Marketing has evolved from a sedate and predictable annual media buy to a do-or-die battle to stay ahead of the competition and keep up with the consumer. As marketing takes on this challenge, there is a temptation to deploy cloud-based technology, leaving behind IT department involvement.
Purchase a turn-key, self-contained marketing system and everyone lives happily ever after, right?
There’s no denying this “shadow IT” trend in which marketing and other... Mehr

If you’re a retailer considering globalization, or a global retailer looking to streamline your global operations, then you probably already understand the difficulties that lie ahead. Globalizing your commerce systems and overall strategy is no small feat, but it can be done. With the right commerce foundation in place, and a strategy to execute on, you’re ready to start identifying and integrating the appropriate... Mehr

Building a global technical commerce ecosystem requires looking at how each and every aspect of your retail business operates, both independently and as a cohesive ecosystem; across each channel in one market, and then across all of your markets around the world. With worldwide retail ecommerce sales projected to rise to nearly $2.5 trillion by 2018, now is the time.
Before you can integrate new systems and start operating in new markets, however, you need to determine your commerce strategy.... Mehr

You’re the Head of eCommerce, or the CTO of a major retail brand. You’ve got a national retail store presence, and a massive customer database. Your sales are growing, your team excels at merchandising, your commerce platform works well in the US, and you’re ahead of the curve in product innovation within your industry.
You’re running a well-oiled machine here, and now it’s time to expand into a new market. According to the Forrester Evolution of Global eCommerce Markets report... Mehr

Bellroy sells wallets. That’s it.
Their product line is simple, straightforward, and practical. If you assume that those things equate to a boring, lackluster brand, you’d be wrong. Bellroy has a carefully developed brand image with a thoughtful, comprehensive story to tell about their product and how it fits into the lives of their customers. They’ve clearly built a business around understanding customer pain points and needs, and have executed a nearly flawless UX based on that information. Their website is interesting, dynamic, and fun --... Mehr

If you want to increase online conversions and customer loyalty, you have to get a clear handle on your target market: who they are and what they want. And the best way to do that is by collecting the relevant data to personalize the buying experience. Having up-to-date demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data will help you send consumers valuable content, do more effective A/B testing, improve click-through rates,... Mehr

As my colleague Martin Eley wrote about last week, it’s a reality of the digital age that large companies have many, many web sites. Several small companies do as well of course, but the ecosystem of web sites under a corporate umbrella explodes as companies grow and the brands they manage, the number of regions they operate in, and the number of customers they serve expands. And as companies with this predicament have found, having many sites creates “many site problems” and not solving these... Mehr

“So I buy it. The most perfect little cardigan in the world. People will call me the Girl in the Gray Cardigan. I’ll be able to live in it. Really, it’s an investment.”
~ Rebecca Bloomwood, Confessions of a Shopaholic
For Rebecca Bloomwood, the path from fauxsumer to consumer was short, nonexistent even. Every item was a necessity and credit card bills were something meant for the trashcan. For those of us who live in the real world, however, the decision to purchase anything typically requires much more... Mehr

Building a world-class commerce website is no easy feat. Notorious for being a complicated technical venture, it requires the perfect blend of people, process, and technology. But it is possible to build a “best for me” technical solution, if you’re thoughtful and tactful in how you go about doing so.
Here’s how:
Step 1: Really think hard and define your commerce goals
If you’re considering rebuilding your commerce backend, there must be a reason -- or many. These pain points should be used as the foundational goals for your business: What must your new system be able to excel at that your... Mehr